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Americans: Are We Now Guilty Until Proven Innocent?

By KrisAnne Hall, JD

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has vowed to exceed the Obama Administration’s level of violations on American property and due process rights through the draconian use of the “guilty until proven innocent” process of federal civil asset forfeitures. Sessions, in doing so is not only turning his back on the Constitution, but is also denying the States’ authority to protect the rights of their own citizens.

The Fourth Amendment should bring to Sessions, his federal agents, and the American people as whole, the proper perspective on the very clear limits of government power over the superior authority of the rights of the people and their property.

The Fourth Amendment is a very plainly written and self-defining text. The meaning and application of the fourth amendment should be easily understood and applied. Yet decades of academic deception combined with an ever expanding federal power base has driven the American people to doubt the plainness of the text and adopt the error thrust upon them by those who profit from government power.

The Fourth Amendment reads:

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

The Fourth Amendment is plainly written to force the government to recognize the inherent right of the people to be secure in their property and creates only one exception to that inherent right; a reasonable search and seizure. It is self-defining because it explains the exact parameters of a reasonable search and seizure. By the text, the only exception to an American’s right to be secure from federal searches and seizures is when the government can completely fulfill the following requirements:

A warrant

Based upon probable cause

Supported by oath or affirmation (due process)

Particularly describing the place to be searched

Particularly describing the things to be seized

We know that all five elements are required to be present at the same time for a search and seizure to be lawful because within the list of the text, the elements are connected by the word “and” not “or.” Therefore, any search or seizure that does not meet all five elements simultaneously is not a reasonable search and seizure and is precisely the “unreasonable” search and seizure that the Fourth Amendment prohibits.

Civil asset forfeiture, along with the seizure of persons and property authorized by Congress under the Patriot Act, are complete violations of the required elements of the Fourth Amendment and clear attack on the rights and Liberties of the people.

The Fourth Amendment was ratified as a part of the Bill of Rights to remind the people to never allow their government to exercise an arbitrary power over the property of the people. But that is exactly what our federal government has been doing for decades. James Madison, father of our Constitution, warned us about the kind of government that exercises this arbitrary power:

“That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where the property which a man has in his personal safety and personal liberty, is violated by arbitrary seizures…” Essay on Property, 1792

What we must recognize is that every “exception” to the federal government’s search and seizure restrictions established by the Fourth Amendment are exceptions created by the federal government to increase the power of the federal government over the inherent rights of the people. There has been no amendment to the Constitution to expand federal search and seizure power because of the “necessities” of national security, drug prosecution, or IRS debt collection. All exceptions come through either congressional act, executive order, or supreme Court Opinion. However, without an amendment to authorize this expansion of power, these political mechanism are contrary to the Constitution and therefore invalid.

“There is no position which depends on clearer principles, than that every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the tenor of the commission under which it is exercised, is void. No…act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.” Federalist #78

And, our current government’s pledge to engage in this arbitrary deprivation of the rights of the people classifies themselves under the category of “most complete despotism” and their unlawful searches and seizures are declared by the Constitution and those who wrote it to be invalid.

There are ways to fight terrorism and criminals without trampling the rights of the American people. The Constitution demands the government operate within those parameters.

I am reminded of the words of William Pitt, in 1783: “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”

If we allow the claim of necessity to justify these proven infringements upon the rights of the people, that would classify our government as tyrants and Americans as slaves. I am certain that this is not the kind of legacy that President Donald Trump is endeavoring to secure for himself or his administration. Americans must remind him and Jeff Sessions that it is their duty to secure our rights, not trample upon them. Our States must guard the people’s rights and refuse jurisdiction to the federal agencies attempting to enforce these unlawful and unconstitutional searches and seizures.

KrisAnne Hall is a former biochemist, Russian linguist for the US Army, and former prosecutor for the State of Florida. KrisAnne also practiced First Amendment Law for a prominent Florida non-profit Law firm. KrisAnne now travels the country teaching the foundational principles of Liberty and our Constitutional Republic. KrisAnne is the author of 6 books on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, she also has an internationally popular radio and television show and her books and classes have been featured on C-SPAN TV. KrisAnne can be found at www.KrisAnneHall.com.